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Incoming MOTC tonight! TJPW Korakuen Yuna Manase vs Runa Okubo I like Runa's forearm strikes better than Toga's and Yuna is monumentally topographical. Pillows of heaven may tremble. I mean pillars. Will report back tomorrow on how I fell asleep during the UUG segment.

The execs that watched it grossly underestimate the intelligence of their audiences. This is what is playing at cinemas right now: - Crappily done horror movie about tarot cards - the latest Godzilla/Kong movie - religious indoctrination movie about a piece of shit music producer father coming to America - once successful movie franchise that mines nostalgia - big budget action movie that mines nostalgia for a TV show Anything different is quickly getting cycled out of the theater (like Challengers or Monkey Man) In a better world, I Saw The TV Glow, The Beast and Evil Does Not Exist would be selling out theaters and execs would be more open to Megalopolis being in movie theaters.

There is always the leave the ring option, which has been explored more than once in wrestling. If someone doesn't want to cooperate, that option is always on the table. I am not saying you necessarily need to get blackballed from wrestling, but after that, you probably cannot come back. Moreover, there is clearly an underlying issue that caused that as that is not something you have seen before or since. Maybe you can put the Jackie Sato/Shinobu Kandori incident up there since you got to be pretty ballsy to shoot on your boss (a goddamn legend at that) and intentionally try to injure them on top of that. That was also a case of someone (Kandori) who legit knew what they were doing in terms of adequately defending themselves and also going way too far. However, as we saw years later when the original JWP split, that was clearly something politically motivating that and not just a case of a regular pro wrestling receipt. Here with Gulak, I am not sure what to make of all of this just happening under the noses of folks who been in the business longer than he has been alive. I cannot buy that stretch.

I don't understand why half the locker room wasn't waiting at gorilla for him after that Chen spot.

Thunder Interlude – show number forty-three – 10 December 1998 "The WCW Gang casually puts on a decent, wrestling-focused show that, while not great, upholds the best of what WCW Thunder can be” Welcome to the penultimate Thunder of 1998…Rey Misterio Jr. meets Juvi Guerrera for a Cruiserweight title shot…There’ll be a big six-man tag match between the warring nWo factions as well…And we open up with Bobby Duncum Jr. facing off with Chris Jericho yet again for some reason…I looked up Ralphus and found out he died a few years ago…Truly, Ralphus is an amazing part of this act…Jericho rips up a Thursday Night Ralphus sign…Another sign: KEVIN NASH IS SUPER SHREDDER FROM TMNT?...I see someone just found out about the eight-year-old IMDb website and did some exploring… Lee Marshall calls Jericho “the kid from Calgary”…HE’S FROM WINNIPEG, YOU IDIOT…There’s a very early commercial break…What we get of this match is fine…They’re trying very hard…Jericho’s out here taking vertical suplexes on the mats outside… Jericho throws tantrums and taunts and pretty much makes the whole thing reasonably enjoyable…Duncum makes a comeback and gets a long two count off a rebound bulldog…Jericho gets another rollup with his feet on the ropes for yet another win…Konnan sticks his mug into this deal and tells Mickey Jay what happened, and for some reason, Jay is like DUH OKAY EVEN THOUGH I DIDN'T SEE IT WITH MY OWN EYES RESTART THE MATCH THEN I GUESS…What?...Then, Konnan clobbers Jericho when Jericho’s got a pinning combination, and Duncum rolls Jericho up for the win…So, Duncum finally gets his big win over Jericho and it’s because Konnan helped him, I suppose?...This was a waste of time and energy, but at least it wasn’t unpleasant to watch… I cannot wait until this Ric Flair/Eric Bischoff feud is over…It’s not Benoit/Sullivan or Rick Steiner/Scott Steiner, but it’s a bottom five feud in the Nitro era for my money… Glacier hooks it up with Saturn again…*grumble**mumble*useSaturnbetter*grumble**mumble*…Saturn is very good and has good matches every time out no matter what, and this is no exception…Glacier gets beaten up and begs off outside the ring…That gives Sonny Onoo a chance to sneak up and distract Saturn enough to give Glacier control…Glacier’s control segment features a lot of weak offense, per usual, and it goes on longer than it needs to, but it’s ultimately fine…The finishing run is decent, too, with Saturn trying a DVD, Glacier kicking away, and Saturn tripping Glacier and transferring into the Rings of Saturn… Onoo jumps in and draws a DQ win for Saturn by kicking him…Onoo realizes that he’s in no man’s land and tries to pay Saturn off…Saturn knocks the money away, hits Onoo with a DVD, and then transitions into the Rings of Saturn…The hapless Glacier tries to break things up, but misses an elbowdrop and gets suplexed… Charles Robinson continues to be the most competent of the WCW referees by simply not reversing the decision because Saturn attacked Onoo for attacking him…Funny enough, since I’ve been paying attention to reffing decisions, it’s almost like they’ve been putting Charles Robinson over as their new actually competent head ref, and come to think of it, I haven’t seen Nick Patrick since Scotty Steiner kayfabe injured him, so maybe that's what they're doing… Kaz Hayashi, who I don’t think got even one fucking win over Ernest Miller or even Sonny Onoo before he was transitioned out of that feud, faces Norman Smiley…Can both of these guys win this match somehow?...I’m a sicko who is looking forward to watching both these guys be more prominently placed in 2000, even if Norman Smiley is the ultimate joke character at that point…Wouldn’t you know it, this is a fun match…Smiley bullies Kaz with his power and size advantage…Smiley hits a stalling double-underhook suplex and covers, but he pulls Kaz up at two…Will he get punished for his profligacy?...He almost does after Kaz survives for long enough to make a comeback…Kaz gets a flash pinfall for two…But Norman survives and locks on the chickenwing, which looks much better this show…I believe he calls his version the Norman Conquest, which is an excellent finisher name… Thunder this week has dispensed with the talking and just let guys have six, eight, ten minute matches…That’s what I like… Video recap of Goldberg, Bam Bam, and Nash beefing last Nitro…You know what would rule?...A Bam Bam/Saturn feud…I hope we get one before Saturn splits for New York… Ernest Miller comes to the ring by himself…No wait, here comes a re-injured Sonny Onoo, trailing behind…Lee Marshall apparently has some off-screen kayfabe (I assume) beef with Dave Penzer because Onoo kicks at Penzer, and Marshall approves of it…That’s a throwaway nonsense angle that will never be booked that I actually am moderately interested in…Miller insults a few fans, then does his whole “karate champion” shtick…Onoo sticks his head in to ask why the Cat didn’t back him up earlier in the show…The Cat strictly adheres to the truth in pointing out that Onoo has two victories over Saturn, and therefore, Miller didn’t think that Onoo needed any help…There’s a gem of a story here, which is that the scheming Onoo has been out-schemed by his own client for once, but I have low expectations for WCW creative’s ability to tell it, and I don’t know that Miller or Onoo can take over and tell that story themselves effectively…They’re not exactly Chris Jericho or Raven in terms of creativity...Miller fires up Onoo to go find Saturn and kick his ass before telling the crowd that he hates them and leaving… Rey Misterio Jr. and Juvi Guerrera face off for a trip to Starrcade to face Billy Kidman…I love it when a match is almost certain to be good…Juvi works well as a heel, hitting some nice chops and ripping at Rey’s mask…Rey picks the pace up and immediately turns the tide going into a break…Back from break, Rey is fired up and lands a Bronco Buster on Juvi…Juvi turns the tide by landing a huge powerbomb while eating ten punches in the corner, and a few lWo members make themselves known at ringside at this point…Juvi gets a little comfortable and takes a whole lot of time on a dive that he eats boots on…The match goes back and forth as both men trade two counts… The intrigue is in how the lWo will interfere…Rey looks ascendant and scores a string of two counts…Juvi has learned from all those matches with Kidman and reverses a powerbomb with a bulldog…We get a slick counter-counter-counter that ends with Juvi flipping out of a suplex attempt and hitting a Juvi Driver…Juvi takes a whole lot of time going up for a 450..That’s a mistake, as it gives Rey time to crotch Juvi up top and land a top-rope rana…That’s when the lWo runs in to end the match…I guess that means Rey wins by DQ and gets the shot, then?...Kidman runs down, and in a neat variation on the typical babyface save, picks his spot, launches himself from the top rope and splashes three guys, rolls away, circles the ring, and pulls Rey out while everyone is diverted looking to see what he’ll do next…That’s a clever way to do a one-versus-a-bunch save… Video of the Giant insulting the crowd last Nitro…Oh, and also challenging DDP to a match…This big doofus does a bunch of Christmas puns and then calls DDP “the bang man”…So yeah, that’s about how that promo went, if I didn’t make it clear in the previous Nitro review…We also get video of Page yamming Giant with a chair shot last Nitro… We get a now-rare Lodi appearance on Thunder…He’d better hope Stevie Ray is in the building to help him out because his opponent is Booker T.…Mike Tenay confirms that even though the lWo jumped in and prevented Rey from winning in the previous match, somehow Rey doesn’t get the title shot…Hey, just on cue, Stevie Ray gets in the ring and interrupts the beating that Book is giving Lodi…Stevie is upset that Booker has reduced himself to wrestling “a sign boy?!?!”…heh heh…Lodi is insulted and loads his fist, but Stevie conks him with a slapjack before he can do anything with it...Stevie basically thinks Booker is a punk bitch and needs to join the nWo before Stevie has to get violent…After the, uh, months and months of “fun” that has been the Steiner Brothers feuding, I have zero interest in Harlem Heat feuding…And that’s before I consider that I actually know how the feud goes, and it goes completely shitty…It's probably bolted on for a place in the bottom five feuds in the Nitro era, which is a category (along with top five feuds) that I'll be adding to my big list... Kanyon finally figures out that the crowd answers his big question for them incorrectly because they’re trying to piss him off…He is even more pissed off at Raven, though…He wants to know WHAT ABOUT ME...WHAT ABOUT KANYON?...Chris Benoit is mad, just mad at everything, the guy is a being of pure and unbridled rage, but he’s surprisingly subdued on his way to the ring…Kanyon immediately outworks him to win an armdrag, then reverses an arm wringer and rolls Benoit up for two…Huh, usually Benoit’s such an aggressive little guy…Kanyon acquits himself quite well in the early going…Eventually he gets caught and German suplexed, then chopped after he breaks away to avoid rolling Germans… Benoit takes over, and Kanyon rolls outside after eating a big superplex…Benoit embarks on an almost casual beatdown of Kanyon…Kanyon hits a desperation side Russian, but can’t gather himself to make a quick cover and only gets two…There’s some back and forth in which Kanyon goes back to getting his ass kicked…This is a strange match in that Benoit is kind of matter-of-fact about the whole thing, but Kanyon is wrestling and selling like he’s in the midst of a war…Kanyon is trying his hardest to survive, and so Raven makes all of his effort pointless by walking out and clobbering Benoit in the head with a can of paint…That draws a DQ win for Benoit…Kanyon is angry at Raven, and turns around from arguing with him right into a Crippler Crossface from a chagrined Benoit…Hey Kanyon, maybe you should just, I don’t know, stop being friends with Raven?... The main event pits nWo Hollywood (Horace Hogan, Stevie Ray, and Vincent) against nWo Wolfpac (Kevin Nash, Lex Luger, and Konnan)…Well, that’s quite the lopsided matchup, to say the least…Wait, Nash isn’t out here…I thought this was a six-man tag…So did the desk…Honestly, even down Nash, this matchup is still lopsided as hell…Luger gets the mic and helps Konnan start his Catchphrase Roulette, a devastating series of catchphrases that demoralizes the opponent and sets them up for an eventual Tequila Sunrise… After the roulette, we hit a break, and was Kevin Nash like, I’m gonna book myself to be on vacation for the rest of this week fellas, see you at Nitro, or what?...I feel ripped off, and therefore will just skim over the obvious layout of the match (Luger fights hard, eats beatdown because of numbers, gets hot tag, Konnan fights hard, eats beatdown because of numbers, gets hot tag because both of these guys spend a lot of time getting beaten down and hot tagging in tag matches, so we need to do it for both of them in this nine-minute match) to get to the ending…Scott Hall runs out and punches Stevie Ray, who stumbles back into Lex Luger’s Torture Rack…I’m still confused about why Konnan and Luger are just chill about Kevin Nash not showing up, but whatever…It was a boring match, but the babyfaces won, so everyone went home happy…That counts for something, especially in WCW… This show was perfectly cromulent…WOOOO…

Every single Redacted match I have seen is like watching a hurricane blow into town for 10 minutes. I don't know if he's "good" but he sure is "an event". The Killdozer vs Atticus Cogar main event was unbelievably gnarly. Like honestly at this point most deathmatches are pretty passe because you just get numb to the violence but Jesus Christ that was something. Cogar might be an actual psychopath. Honestly both of the Cogar brothers are really fucking good heels from the ICW that I've watched.

So powerful was the CBS Sunday night line up, this show was in the top ten one year as a mid season replacement.

Consider how long Bill DeMott got away with running developmental like a psycho. I doubt anyone in power at WWE looked negatively at Gulak roughing up the trainees a little.

People also forget the following things about the Yoshiko situation: - Act Yasukawa threw shoot punches first, and there were multiple punches thrown before Yoshiko responded - They were actually broken up before Kyohei Wada decided to let the match continue, even though Act's face was clearly busted up - When they tried to get back to a normal match, Act again started throwing shoot punches first and Yoshiko retaliated - Kyohei Wada continued to do nothing to stop it until Kyoko Kimura finally threw in the towel for Act, who screamed that she wanted to keep going and had to be physically dragged away from the ring Yoshiko beating Act so severely was obviously wrong, but I don't know what Yoshiko was supposed to do there aside from take more punches to the face and not defend herself, even if those punches weren't doing a thing to her. People also keep claiming that Act has been retired forever because of this, but Act's still wrestling today (albeit for Actwresgirlz). Like yeah. Yoshiko should've tried to do more to control the situation. She was clearly much more skilled at throwing legitimate punches. But at the same time, there were multiple chances for others to step in and try to deescalate the situation - or also, get Act to stop trying to throw legitimate punches - and people didn't do anything. A true "everyone sucks here" case if there ever was one.

It was reported a while back that he was looking into scientology, personally with his love of head coverings, facial hair and use of the word "brother" he's made a fine Sikh

I know that but, most kids drink irl behind their parents back. And Tony being a drinker was part of his 616 and 6160 counterparts characterizations.

He's also just a kid.

The Maker eliminated a lot of heroes from Earth 6160. The world has more dead characters compared to the old Ultimate Universe Earth. Ka-Zar and Zabu are dead; the Savage Land was genocided. Black Bolt was murdered as a child. The Golden Age Vision is dead, Sentry is dead, Logan/Weapon X is dead. Doesn't apply to everyone, but it's a world with not many powered people, so in a way more realistic. At least by their absence.

So wait...they weren't aware but (1) one or more people kept a running tally of his offenses and (2) they weren't paying close attention to his matches when we all know folks are in the Gorilla position attentively watching matches. Dude, Shawn Michaels is the same guy who lost his shit when guys like Vader would get too rough. But he doesn't know when someone is intentionally trying to hurt someone? ...Alright. Then talent knew but the people in charge of supervising said talent didn't. Alright then. That wasn't secretive bullying. This was supposedly happening during matches. Also, we're saying that he was "bullying" people. Did Gulak say he was out here bullying people? Or is that someone intepreting that as what he was doing? When did Drew Gulak become Rick Steiner or JBL?

Not for nothing nor to deny seriousness of these or the allegations against Gulak, the idea of Shawn Michaels chewing someone out for not being professional tickles me greatly. "Back in my day you didn't take advantage of your opponent in the ring, you might stomp on him and curse him out or maybe make an overt reference on live TV to them cheating on their wife, or you just showed up to work high and/or drunk..."

This goes under the assumption they were aware. Supposedly Michaels chewed him out for one incident, but the post implies most were not reported because Gulak would intimidate his victims.

Re: the WrestlePurists tweet This seems very much like left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. That or someone is embellishing a little bit since he is already on his way out. Cause the waistband thing is already enough to get you out of the paint. The other allegations are extremely serious as well. So was he not punished each incident? He was just allowed to get back in there as if nothing happened? A reprimand is one thing. Each someone is doing it repeatedly, then there has to be a system in place. People are bringing up Sexy Star and Yoshiko, but AFAIK, those two only did it once with the latter being extremely egregious. If WWE is so on the ball and has all their ducks in a row, then why was this allowed to just happen? That is on top of the Rousey story, which is its own fireable offense. So with that in mind, how do we end up with, "well, his contract wasn't renewed." Let me get this right. A person under your employ was doing all that (allegedly), BUT you were waiting for his contract to run out? What in the entire fuck?

He had my match of the year with Danielson awhile back, but so what. You know what, thinking about it, the style of that match is seen usually at least once a week in AEW now. It might not scrape a top ten these days.

That reminds me, I need a Bukowski shirt with DON'T TRY and the boxing man outline from his headstone on a shirt.

The news about Gulak is disappointing as I thought he was one of the more underrated and under-utilized people on the roster for a long time, but fuck him. His younger brother left the business after being outed as a pedo so I wonder if the same thing happens to him.

I heard Zellnersay that Wolfie D had Marcus Dupree on his podcast.

Not when he calls the other company “the Harvey Weinstein of wrestling”

It's weird and fun for me to be able to bust out the more compex special moves and do combos in old fighting games. That's cool.

did you check out the Blast No1 grindcore tribute to Type O? I posted one of the songs in the covers thread

That was far from the craziest match he's ever had in ICW NHB, so... yeah, probably. Like most people who do the Sasuke "put a metal trashcan over my head & upper torso and jump off the top rope" spot nowadays, they dive onto a bunch of guys who'll catch them. Redacted will do it from the top chain platform to the arena floor, aiming at one guy on a table, and they'll move. Shit, he missed one off the top a cage once.